HAL cancels St Petersburg for 2023

[VMax1700]

I had to laugh at myself this morning.

We are waiting on HAL to decide where our August 28th cruise will depart from.....Amsterdam, as scheduled, or Rotterdam (because of low water levels) or where ever.   We also have a Baltic cruise booked recently for September 23rd, 2023.

 

This morning in my email was the "Itinerary Change Notification" email and I thought, great!, they have made a decision on embarkation......is it Amsterdam, is it Rotterdam, is it..........

 

Well I got that wrong.

It's a notification that because of the geopolitical situation they will not be calling to St Petersburg in September 2023.

So HAL have written off peace in Ukraine for some time to come.

 

ITINERARY CHANGE NOTIFICATION
Please be advised that due to port closures from geopolitical events we will
no longer call to St. Petersburg, Russia on September 29 & 30, 2023. Instead,
we have revised the itinerary and added a call to Riga, Latvia on Thursday,
September 28 from 7:00 AM to 3:00 PM. Additionally, our call to Tallinn,
Estonia has been moved to Friday, September 29 from 9:00 AM to 8:00 PM and our
call to Helsinki, Finland will be on Saturday, September 30 from 7:00 AM to
5:00 PM. Finally, our call to Stockholm, Sweden has been extended to overnight,
arriving Sunday, October 1 at 8:00 AM and departing Monday, October 2 at 6:00
PM.

Edited August 9, 2022 by VMax1700

[Tampa Girl]

28 minutes ago, VMax1700 said:

I had to laugh at myself this morning.

We are waiting on HAL to decide where our August 28th cruise will depart from.....Amsterdam, as scheduled, or Rotterdam (because of low water levels) or where ever.   We also have a Baltic cruise booked recently for September 23rd, 2023.

 

This morning in my email was the "Itinerary Change Notification" email and I thought, great!, they have made a decision on embarkation......is it Amsterdam, is it Rotterdam, is it..........

 

Well I got that wrong.

It's a notification that because of the geopolitical situation they will not be calling to St Petersburg in September 2023.

So HAL have written off peace in Ukraine for some time to come.

 

ITINERARY CHANGE NOTIFICATION
Please be advised that due to port closures from geopolitical events we will
no longer call to St. Petersburg, Russia on September 29 & 30, 2023. Instead,
we have revised the itinerary and added a call to Riga, Latvia on Thursday,
September 28 from 7:00 AM to 3:00 PM. Additionally, our call to Tallinn,
Estonia has been moved to Friday, September 29 from 9:00 AM to 8:00 PM and our
call to Helsinki, Finland will be on Saturday, September 30 from 7:00 AM to
5:00 PM. Finally, our call to Stockholm, Sweden has been extended to overnight,
arriving Sunday, October 1 at 8:00 AM and departing Monday, October 2 at 6:00
PM.

If a miracle happens, perhaps HAL will reinstate  it?

[LynnTTT]

We are on the October TA which was to include St Petersburg. That stop was cancelled of course and we decided we'll never go to Russia, even if allowed on cruises or for regular tourist travel.  They can't be rewarded or forgiven so easily

[USN59-79]

The Westerdam is scheduled to stop at Vladivostok on 18 April 2023 as it cruises around Japan.  No email from HAL yet, but I understand their problem.  Japan has laws similar to the U.S. in that you can't just cruise from all Japanese ports without stopping at a nearby foreign port.  The nearby countries are Korea and Taiwan and along with Japan, neither of them are open to cruise ships yet.

Ray

[Divi]

Friends booked on a World Cruise on another line received an email today canceling Russian ports and replacing them with Japanese ports. Their cruise is 2024!

[carlmm]

Very sensible move and very well done to inform booked and potential passengers so far in advance.

[ECCruise]

1 hour ago, VMax1700 said:

we have revised the itinerary and added a call to Riga, Latvia on Thursday,
September 28 from 7:00 AM to 3:00 PM. Additionally, our call to Tallinn,
Estonia has been moved to Friday, September 29 from 9:00 AM to 8:00 PM and our
call to Helsinki, Finland will be on Saturday, September 30 from 7:00 AM to
5:00 PM. Finally, our call to Stockholm, Sweden has been extended to overnight,
arriving Sunday, October 1 at 8:00 AM and departing Monday, October 2 at 6:00
PM.

We were just on a Baltic land trip a couple of months ago and Riga was absolutely our most favorite stop.  And an overnight in Stockholm is an additional bonus with the loss of St. Petersburg.

[ontheweb]

I would expect that no one really expected them to sail to St. Petersburg in 2023.

[Oceansaway17]

10 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

I would expect that no one really expected them to sail to St. Petersburg in 2023.

I agree and perhaps not even 2024.

But now HAL and others can do more interesting smaller ports in Denmark and Visby Sweden and Germany as well.

[Fredrik]

We are booked on the Rotterdam next April for a seven night cruise to the Norwegian fjords and we also got the email today that St Pete was cancelled. Since it wasn’t on the itinerary to begin with….. …..I’m not too upset 😉 

[FlaMariner]

4 hours ago, LynnTTT said:

That stop was cancelled of course and we decided we'll never go to Russia, even if allowed on cruises or for regular tourist travel.  They can't be rewarded or forgiven so easily

 

That is the way we roll also......No Russia or China for us never mind what the cruise line decides to do.....

[togacath]

Riga is definitely a must see!

[ontheweb]

18 hours ago, Fredrik said:

We are booked on the Rotterdam next April for a seven night cruise to the Norwegian fjords and we also got the email today that St Pete was cancelled. Since it wasn’t on the itinerary to begin with….. …..I’m not too upset 😉 

S  t. Petersburg would be well out of the way on a Norwegian fjords cruise.

[USN59-79]

Got an email from HAL this morning thru my TA that they are cancelling the stop in Vladivostok and are substituting a stop in Buson, South Korea on 18 April 2023.  I was kind of apprehensive about opening the email as I thought they might be rescheduling the whole cruise.

[ski ww]

I was surprised that it took them this long to cancel stops in Russia. I'm glad we got to see St. Petersburg years ago. Beautiful city, great sites.

[ontheweb]

1 hour ago, ski ww said:

I was surprised that it took them this long to cancel stops in Russia. I'm glad we got to see St. Petersburg years ago. Beautiful city, great sites.

And one must feel sorry for the guides who have now lost their source of revenue. One thing everyone who has cruised to and taken a private tour in St. Petersburg is that their guide was wonderful.

 

 

[Heartgrove]

Has there been a decrease in cruise fare? I seem to recall that the port fees for St. Petersburg were rather high.

[VMax1700]

6 hours ago, Heartgrove said:

Has there been a decrease in cruise fare? I seem to recall that the port fees for St. Petersburg were rather high.

No decrease in fare on this side of the Atlantic!  

 

[Hlitner]

9 hours ago, Heartgrove said:

Has there been a decrease in cruise fare? I seem to recall that the port fees for St. Petersburg were rather high.

Most cruise lines refund unused or over estimated port fees to the onboard accounts.  This is actually a requirement for many cruises sailing out of Florida (several major cruise lines signed onto a court settlement deal regarding fees) but I am not sure that deal is binding elsewhere.

 

Hank

[Heartgrove]

2 hours ago, Hlitner said:

Most cruise lines refund unused or over estimated port fees to the onboard accounts.  This is actually a requirement for many cruises sailing out of Florida (several major cruise lines signed onto a court settlement deal regarding fees) but I am not sure that deal is binding elsewhere.

 

Hank

 

Yes, I understand that. My question is more for a known change while the cruise is being advertised for the following year. HAL is no longer advertising nor offering St. Petersburg for 2023. Just wondering if anyone captured what the cruise fair use to be with St. Petersburg?

[VMax1700]

1 hour ago, Heartgrove said:

 

Yes, I understand that. My question is more for a known change while the cruise is being advertised for the following year. HAL is no longer advertising nor offering St. Petersburg for 2023. Just wondering if anyone captured what the cruise fair use to be with St. Petersburg?

I can only base the response on the Euro site, and the itinerary is updated, the map is updated but the 'spiel' still mentions St Petersburg.  The price is unchanged since I booked on 3rd August.  Itinerary change was notified on 9th August.  Taxes and fees are still showing the same amount €224.10 pp

[ontheweb]

2 hours ago, Hlitner said:

Not gonna get into the war thing because CC is about cruising.  I was never part of the NATO bureaucracy (over 4000 working at their European HQ) but I was in the Vietnam war (about a year after Lt. Calley) and know what it is like to take cover from incoming!

 

My heart is with those unfortunate but very brave souls in Ukraine.  When we were recently in Krakow (after finished a TA cruise) we ran into some of the refugees from Ukraine.  Ukrainian flags were flying in many places within both Poland and the Czech Republic where we never saw a single Russian flag.  There were also nightly demonstrations in Krakow, and they were all supportive of Ukraine.  Folks in those Eastern European countries know Russia and the Russians much better than us, and nobody seems to be concerned about Russian tour guides.  

 

I will add that DW and I have been to Ukraine on two cruises and really enjoyed what we saw (mostly in the regions of Odessa and Yalta) and were charmed by the locals.  Our first visit was only a few months after Ukraine got out from under the Iron Curtain, and what we saw was heartbreaking.  We hired a local taxi and our driver drove us many miles from Yalta to an area that overlooked the Dacha where Gorbachev had been held as a hostage.  At that time the food supplies were low, poverty was a big problem, and the country was floundering.  A few years later we were back in Odessa and the city looked terrific, there were lots of new stores, restaurants, the beautiful Opera House had been renovated, etc.  What I see today breaks my heart.   I hope to live long enough to return to Ukraine in better times.  

 

Hank

None of them probably ever met a tour guide in St. Petersburg. And no one is really comparing their plight to those of the Ukrainian nationals, just saying it was not their fault that this war is happening and their income stream ended.

 

Let us not forget that it was in St. Petersburg that the first demonstrations in Russia against Putin's war occurred.